The Coppinger Family

There’s an unmistakably warm, ‘lived-in’ feeling that comes with a long-serving family home. Layered with history and nostalgia, homes like this have a personality all their own. In fact, they feel like another member of the family.

One such home belongs to The Coppinger family in Melbourne’s Balwyn. Here lives Inge, who works in the fashion industry, David, an ex-architect and now artist, and daughters Cleo (22, studying interior design) and Alexandra (19, studying neuroscience). The family have been here 10 years, after moving to Melbourne from Cape Town, South Africa.

Written

Lucy Feagins

Supported by Dulux

The Balwyn home of Melbourne’s Coppinger family. Above – glazed sunroom / terrace adjoining the living space. ‘The amazing creeper that came with the house (in the tiniest pot) has grown along the 2 sides of the terrace and is on its way back!’ mentions Inge. ‘We have to get house sitters to water it when we are away over summer. This plant is like one of our pets!’ Photo – Annette O’Brien. Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Terrace detail. A row of three Iguzzini spot lights designed by Renzo Piano, bought on eBay and installed by David. Photo – Annette O’Brien. Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Lounge and dining area. Original timber panelling and cabinetry. Kilim rug purchased while the family were living in Cape Town. Photo – Annette O’Brien. Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Lounge and dining area. Vintage Peiping beer poster and the wooden chest belonged to David’s grandmother, and travelled extensively overland through Africa with her in the 1920s following the route of the old British airways flying boats. Photo – Annette O’Brien. Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Lounge and dining area. Art Deco dining room chairs and glass top table bought from the family’s neighbourhood auction rooms when they were living in Cape Town. Wooden helicopter and plane bought from a young roadside carver in Zimbabwe. Photo – Annette O’Brien. Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Dining detail. Vintage Sapporo beer poster bought in Tasmania, and brass studded wooden box bought in Zanzibar. Photo – Annette O’Brien. Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Original concealed bar in dining room. Large wooden bird (right) bought while the family was travelling in the Okavango Delta in Botswana – purchased in transit, from the back of a canoe! Photo – Annette O’Brien. Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Original Kitchen. ‘We love our ironware cooking pots that we received as wedding presents and have used every night since,’ says Inge. Photo – Annette O’Brien. Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Main bedroom. ‘The chairs were gifted to us by the old lady living across the road from us in Cape Town,’ says Inge. Washing basket from Botswana, and road sign by ‘Chickenman’ Pietermatitzburg SA. Photo – Annette O’Brien. Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Entrance hall. Irma Stern prints David acquired while working with the museum in Cape Town, pastel artwork by Mandla Vanyaza in Cape Town, wooden trunk bought in Malawi, and earthenware pot from Gazankulu Northern SA. Photo – Annette O’Brien. Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

The facade of the Coppinger family home, and Milo the dog! Photo – Annette O’Brien. Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Garden, complete with a koi pond and waterfall, and vintage umbrella from hard rubbish! Photo – Annette O’Brien. Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.

Writer

Lucy Feagins

9th of August 2016

Incredibly, when Inge and David Coppinger moved to Melbourne from South Africa more than a decade ago, they had never before visited Australia! They were looking for a fresh start and more opportunities for their two young daughters. They settled in Balwyn, renting initially, but soon found themselves in the market to buy their own home and grow roots in their new-found neighbourhood.

‘We were renting across the valley and I used to run past the house, which was standing empty as it was a deceased estate’ recalls Inge. ‘It didn’t look like much from the street, but I mentioned the house to David as we had been looking at (ugly) houses for ages’. Soon after making enquiries, David and Inge had the chance to inspect the home, and they couldn’t understand why no one had snapped it up. They bought it 3 days later.

The home was architect designed in the 1960s, and originally owned by a florist. Elevated on a sloping block, it bears many of the hallmarks of classic late modernist architecture, including floor to ceiling windows, timber panelling and exposed ceiling joists, and original shale detailing.

Whilst Inge and David were keen to retain many of the original features of the house after moving in, there were a few things that had to go! ‘EVERY wall in the house was wallpapered, a lot of it with brown and white stripes which I could not live with, so I painted over the wallpaper myself’ Inge recalls. In addition to this, blinds and ceiling fans were installed throughout, the original kitchen was updated with new appliances, and David miraculously engineered a tiny third bedroom by seamlessly partitioning off a section of hallway / study nook using the same timber and detailing as the original house.

Though Inge and David are certainly a house-proud pair, there’s nothing new or overly orchestrated here. Their home is a richly layered space, full of much-loved second-hand pieces, handcrafted souvenirs from Africa, an eclectic mix of vintage posters and paintings, and artefacts both collected and inherited. Everything here has a story.

The Coppinger family – from left, Inge, Alexandra with Milo the dog, David and Cleo. Photo – Annette O’Brien. Production – Lucy Feagins / The Design Files.